Richard Wagner’s Life

Introduction

Richard Wagner’s autobiography: ‘Mein Leben’ runs in excess of 800 pages. It is quite likely that no composer in history has written in more detail about his life, his aims and his ambitions and possibly none has displayed a greater egotism and sureness of his own genius than Richard Wagner!

He wrote…

I’m not like other people. I have finer nerves – I must have beauty and brilliance and light. The world owes me what I need. I can’t live on a miserable organist’s post, like your master Bach!

THE LEITMOTIF

Wagner was arguably the greatest exponant of the Leitmotif. In simple terms this is a theme meant to represent a character in a dramatic work. In his essay "Opera and Drama" (1851) Wagner had raised the issue of how music could best unite disparate elements of the plot of a music drama. The leitmotif corresponds to this ideal.